Thinking Maps

Have struggling writers?

Have you used Thinking Maps in your classroom?  

I started using Thinking Maps in my classroom last year after going to the professional development training at my school.  I cannot express enough how grateful I am for being able to have attended that training!  Using Thinking Maps has transformed my students' writing.

Even my students that normally struggle when it comes to expressing their thoughts have been able to achieve success using Thinking Maps!  No more tears!  No more struggle!  These Thinking Maps empower the students!  They are able to take ownership of their writing like I have never seen before!

My students read articles about the Gold Rush this week.  The created Tree Maps to identify the main ideas and key details in the two different articles.  Then, they used different colors to use them like Bubble Maps.  After this they were able to write detailed paragraphs expressing the similarities and differences in the articles.